French Open: Murray survives as Kyrgios, Stosur cruise on

Second seed Andy Murray survived his second successive five-set French Open battle to reach the third round on Wednesday, avoiding what would have been his worst Grand Slam loss in eight years.

Murray, three times a semi-finalist, wore down France’s world number 164 Mathias Bourgue, who had never won a tour-level match before this week, 6-2, 2-6, 4-6, 6-2, 6-3 and goes on to face 37-year-old Ivo Karlovic for a place in the last 16.

After coming back from two sets to love down to beat Radek Stepanek, also 37, in the first round in a tie played over two days, the British star had looked down and out once again on Wednesday.

Australia’s top-ranked male and female players have waltzed into the French Open third round on the back of straight sets wins, with Nick Kyrgios and Samantha Stosur making light work of their opponents.

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But wildcard Jordan Thompson suffered a heartbreaking exit in his Roland Garros debut.

After courting controversy in his opening win on Sunday, Kyrgios kept his nose clean against a hopelessly outclassed world No.123 Igor Sijsling on Wednesday (local time), winning 6-3 6-2 6-1.

Stosur, too, did things with relative ease – breaking her Chinese doubles partner Shuai Zhang five times in a 78-minute 6-3 6-4 victory.

Stosur will next face 11th seed, and last year’s runner up, Lucie Safarova, on Friday.

“In the moments where I was down, or in the second set down a break, it was almost like the worse the position I was in, the better I played which I guess is a good thing,” Stosur said.

“You don’t want to be in that position in the first place but when you really had to knuckle down and do it, I was able to. That’s what I’m probably most pleased with.”

Kyrgios finished his thrashing with a ripping backhand – one of his 35 winners, compared to 13 unforced errors.

He also won five breaks of serve and closed out the match in 70 minutes – faster even than Rafael Nadal’s 80-minute demolition of Australian Sam Groth on Tuesday.

 

 

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